HF 


LIBRARY 

OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY  OF  CALIFORNIA. 


Class 


15he 


Pedagogy  of 
Co  mme  rcial 
Branches 


The    Pedagogy   of 
Commercial  Branches 


AN  ADDRESS 

DELIVERED   BY   J.  A.  LYONS,    AT   PEORIA,  ILLI- 
NOIS,  ON   JULY   8,  1902T*O^N  THE  OCCASION 
OF    THE    ANNUAL    INSTITUTE    OF 
THE  FACULTIES  OF  BROWN'S 
BUSINESS  COLLEGES 


OF  THE 

UNIVERSITY 

or 


PUBLISHED  BY  AND  DISTRIBUTED  WITH  THE  COMPLIMENTS  OF 
POWERS  &  LYONS 

Publishers  of  Commercial  Text  Books 
CHICAGO  NEW  YORK  SAN  FRANCISCO 


GENERAL 


V--         ' 

OF  THE     '      A 

UNIVERSITY 


The  Pedagogy  of  Commercial 
Branches. 

A  school  is  in  a  sense  a  mental  gymnasium.  The 
teacher  is  simply  the  director.  As  in  a  physical 
gymnasium  the  pupil,  not  the  director,,  must  do 
the  work;  so  in  the  school  if  the  pupil  is  to  acquire 
mental  power  he  must  do  the  thinking.  That 
teacher  is  most  successful  who  himself  does  the 
least  but  gets  his  pupils  to  do  the  most.  Beyond 
communicating  mere  conventional  matter  and  per- 
haps indicating  sources  of  information,  the  less 
telling  or  the  less  doing  the  teacher  does  for  the 
pupil  the  better.  The  pupil  must  learn  to  work 
out  his  own  salvation.  The  teacher  should  aim  to 
have  him  reach  the  point  of  independence  at  the 
earliest  possible  moment.  It  is  nothing  less  than 
cruel  to  teach  the  pupil  to  rely  on  the  teacher  at 
every  turn  during  school  days  and  at  the  end 
thereof  throw  him  unsupported  on  to  a  cold  busi- 
ness world.  The  supporting  hand  should  be  ex- 
tended just  before  discouragement  begins,  not 
before. 

3 

187997 


It  is  a  law  of  the  universe  that  faculties  of  what- 
ever kind  grow  by  exercise  and  exercise  involves 
repetition.  Eepetition  of  action  leads  to  habits. 
Eepetition  of  impression  leads  to  clearness  and 
definiteness  of  thought  and  to  permanence  of  recol- 
lection. 

The  mind  consists  of  faculties.  These  faculties 
gain  power  and  develop  by  proper  exercise.  As  no 
physical  exercise  will  develop  all  the  muscles,  but 
only  those  called  into  action,  so  no  mental  exer- 
cise will  develop  all  faculties.  The  educated  man 
is  the  one  whose  various  faculties  are  strong  and 
developed  into  a  symmetrical  whole.  The  black- 
smith may  develop  an  arm,  shoulder,  and  breast 
of  superior  strength  while  his  legs  and  back  may 
remain  comparatively  puny.  Such  a  man  may  only 
be  considered  strong  when  he  can  bring  into  use 
the  particular  muscles  he  has  developed.  This 
will  be  of  advantage  to  him  to  the  extent  that  he 
may  find  occasions  to  use  these  muscles.  A  certain 
set  of  faculties  may  be  made  strong  in  the  same 
manner.  The  modern  theory  of  education  is  to  de- 
velop the  entire  mind  symmetrically.  Greater  sta- 
bility and  equipoise  are  thus  gained  beside  giving 
the  subject  greater  capacity  for  enjoyment.  The 
power  of  placing  proper  values  on  all  things  coming 


within  the  range  of  his  observation  is  one  of  the 
best  marks  of  a  well  balanced  mind.  As  none  of 
us  have  such  a  mind  we  are  all  guilty  of  frequent 
violations  of  the  first  axiom  of  mathematics — the 
whole  is  greater  than  any  of  its  parts.  The  mind 
unsymmetrical  either  by  endowment  or  attainment 
is  unable  by  assigning  proper  value  to  each  con- 
dition or  subject,  to  co-ordinate  those  things  that 
should  be  co-ordinated  and  to  subordinate  those 
things  that  should  be  subordinated.  In  our  own 
work  how  often  do  we  find  a  school  principal  select- 
ing one  subject  from  the  course  and  requiring  that 
the  time  of  the  pupil  be  devoted  to  it  to  the  sacri- 
fice of  time  that  should  be  devoted  to  other  sub- 
jects. In  some  schools  the  importance  of  book- 
keeping is  seemingly  magnified  to  undue  propor- 
tions. In  some  cases  it  is  one  subject  and  in  others 
another.  In  some  ways  this  works  for  good.  It 
is  probably  responsible  for  specialization,  but  in  the 
majority  of  the  affairs  of  life  it  undoubtedly  is  the 
cause  of  most  of  our  woes. 

The  mind  is  a  manifestation  of  the  nervous  sys- 
tem. There  are  five  means  by  which  the  mind  re- 
ceives impressions  from  the  outside  world.  Thus, 
I  set  an  apple  before  you,  you  look  upon  it  and 
you  find  it  is  red  and  round;  you  taste  it  and  you 
5 


say  it  is  sweet;  you  feel  it  and  say  it  is  smooth  and 
hard;  you  place  it  to  your  nose  and  you  say  it  is 
fragrant;  you  snap  it  with  your  finger  and  it  gives 
forth  a  sound.  You  are  now  ready  to  form  a  con- 
clusion in  reference  to  this  object.  No  message 
from  the  outside  world  was  ever  conveyed  to  a 
human  mind  in  any  other  way  than  through  one 
of  these  channels,  the  five  senses.  Let  us  for  the 
moment  turn  our  attention  to  the  nervous  system. 
Perhaps  a  study  of  its  workings  may  give  us  some 
clews  that  will  be  helpful  to  us  in  arriving  at  a 
better  understanding  of  the  very  thing  with  which 
we,  as  teachers,  have  to  do.  The  simplest  nerve  is 
a  single  telegraph  wire  the  outward  end  of  which 
is  capable  of  receiving  a  message  from  without  and 
forwarding  it  to  a  central  office  within  where  a 
record  is  made  of  it.  The  central  office  is  a  nerve 
ganglion. 

The  next  system  in  order  is  this  same  simple 
nerve  leading  to  a  ganglion  out  of  which  ganglion 
leads  another  nerve  back  to  the  same  general  region 
from  which  came  the  message.  Here  you  have  the 
circuit  completed.  The  first  nerve  is  the  sensory 
branch  carrying  impressions, — sensations  to  the 
recording  office,  the  ganglion.  The  second  nerve 
is  the  motor  branch,  conveying  orders  from  the 
6 


central  office  to  its  subordinates,  the  muscles.  Let 
us  further  illustrate  the  action  of  the  circuit.  You 
place  your  finger  accidentally  on  a  hot  stove.  Like 
a  flash  of  lightning  the  impression  is  conveyed  to 
the  spinal  cord  and  immediately  it  sends  a  message 
down  the  mortor  branch  to  the  muscles  to  with- 
draw the  hand  from  danger  and  it  is  done.  The 
next  complication  in  the  system  is  the  addition  of 
a  storage  ganglion  or  ganglion  of  influence  and  the 
circuit  takes  on  this  appearance.  These  ganglia  are 
composed  of  material  apparently  designed  to  re- 
ceive and  retain  impressions.  Passing  still  higher 
in  the  scale  of  development  we  find  these  ganglia 
doubled  in  number  and  the  circuit  might  be  rep- 
resented as  follows:  (Illustration  omitted.) 

The  spinal  cord  and  brain  are  typical  of  these  two 
ganglia.  It  is  thought  that  in  this  the  highest 
type  of  nervous  development  can  we  account  for 
the  consciousness  of  time.  By  storage  ganglia  is 
an  animal  enabled  to  connect  the  present  with  the 
past  and  thus  make  use  of  all  its  experiences.  The 
lowest  orders  of  insects  have  no  such  ganglia  and 
hence  have  only  instinct  to  guide  them.  This  is 
the  highest  type  of  the  nerve  circuit.  Each  sen- 
sation sent  down  a  sensory  nerve  leaves  its  im- 
pression in  the  ganglion.  It  is,  therefore,  the  re- 
7 


pository  of  the  sensations  of  a  lifetime.  It  is  be- 
lieved that  each  sensation  works  a  certain  peculiar 
physical  chemical  or  molecular  change  in  the  gan- 
glion that  never  leaves  it  and  that  the  impression 
or  sensation  may  he  revived,  constituting  what  we 
call  Memory.  Each  repetition  of  the  sensation 
only  deepens  the  impression.  Thus  we  account 
for  the  development  of  memory.  Two  or  more 
sensations  may  have  heen  always  conveyed  to  the 
brain  or  storage  ganglion  concurrently  or  nearly 
so.  Now  present  one  of  these  only  and  it  will 
at  once  throw  that  ganglion  into  a  condition  that 
will  not  only  call  to  mind  the  image  or  sensation 
now  before  it,  but  its  mate  as  well  which  is  not 
present.  Here  we  account  for  what  is  called  the 
law  of  association,  recognized  by  all  teachers  as  so 
large  a  factor  in  training  the  pupiPs  mind  and  es- 
pecially in  enabling  him  to  recall  impressions. 

Thoughts  do  not  spring  spontaneously  in  the 
mind  of  any  one.  They  each  in  turn  take  the  cen- 
ter of  the  stage,  occupy  the  attention  and  pass 
from  sight.  All  this  is  in  accordance  with  a  law 
or  a  series  of  laws.  In  this  operation  the  law  of 
association  plays  an  important  part.  No  man 
since  the  beginning  of  time  has  thought  an  original 
thought.  Each  thought  is  the  result  of  his  pre- 
8 


vious  experience  and  of  his  present  external  stimu- 
lus. We  are  simply  combining  facts  and  principles 
in  all  possible  different  ways.  The  reason  I  do  not 
think  exactly  as  you  do,  is  because  I  have  not  had 
your  experience  nor  am  I  subjected  to  your  precise 
external  stimulus.  There  are  certain  phases  of 
what  we  call  the  general  law  of  association,  that  we 
may  do  well  to  consider. 

1.  Whenever  one  element  of  a  previous  experi- 
ence springs  into  consciousness  it  tends  to  recall 
the  entire  experience.    Or  as  Mill  puts  it:  "When- 
ever any  state  of  consciousness  has  once  been  ex- 
cited in  us,  an  inferior  degree  of  the  same  state 
resembling  the  former  but  inferior  in  intensity  is 
capable  of  being  reproduced  in  us/' 

2.  In  selecting  the  next  idea  for  attention  from 
among  a  number  in  the  same  group  the  mind  will 
choose  the  idea  habitually  connected  with  the  one 
present.     This   is   the   law   of  habit.     You   have 
noticed  for  instance  that  the  pupil  learning  the 
multiplication  table  if  asked,  "What  is  8x7?"  may 
be  unable  to  state,  but  to  determine  will  begin  2x7, 
3x7  and  so  on,  passing  8x7  without  hesitation.    He 
is  simply  making  the  law  of  association  do  for  him 
what  unaided  memory  refuses  to  do. 


3.  Again,,  of  two  or  more  ideas  presented  for 
attention,  the  mind  will  select  the  one  most  re- 
cently associated  with  the  present  one  rather  than 
one  remotely  associated.    The  law  of  recency.    Let 
us  see  if  you  have  recognized  the  reasons  for  a 
certain  advice  you  have  probably  given  time  and 
again.    A  pupil  enters  your  school.    He  desires  to 
take  both  the  shorthand  and  the  business  courses. 
If  it  is  a  question  which  he  shall  take  first  do 
you  not  always  advise  him  to  begin  with  the  busi- 
ness course  and  end  with  shorthand?    Why?    Be- 
cause,   bookkeeping    and    the    other    commercial 
branches  are  more  a  matter  of  the  understanding 
and  less  a  matter  of  memory  and  of  manual  dex- 
terity than  shorthand.     The  law  of  recency  plays 
an  important  part  in  the  practice  of  shorthand,  but 
not  so  large  a  part  in  bookkeeping. 

4.  Of  two  or  more  ideas  presented  for  the  at- 
tention the  mind  will  select  that  one  most  vividly 
associated  with  the  present  one.     A  much  larger 
use  of  this  law  can  be  made  than  I  believe  is  made 
by  teachers  generally.     If  you  have  some  fact  or 
some  principle  that  you  particularly  wish  to  im- 
press upon  the  pupil,  link  it  with  an  anecdote  or 
with  some  illustration  that  you  know  will  appeal 
to  that  pupil  and  it  will  become  fixed  in  his  mind 

10 


as  nothing  else  would  fix  it,  but  of  this  we  shall 
speak  more  at  length  later. 

John  W.  Draper  tells  of  an  experiment  that  will 
illustrate  the  force  of  impressions.  Take  a  key, 
place  it  on  a  sheet  of  cold  polished  metal  and  then 
breathe  upon  it.  When  the  moisture  has  had  time 
to  disappear  throw  off  the  key.  If  now  you  breathe 
upon  the  metal  again  a  picture  of  the  key  will  come 
forth  on  it.  It  is  said  that  this  experiment  may 
be  repeated  months  afterwards,  if  the  face  of  the 
metal  be  kept  free  from  abrasion.  These  impres- 
sions it  is  known  are  retained  for  months.  What 
then  must  be  the  effect  of  impressions  made  on  a 
substance  particularly  constructed  for  the  retention 
of  impressions?  It  is  believed  that  a  shadow  never 
falls  upon  the  wall  without  leaving  thereon  its 
permanent  imprint,  and  that  the  time  will  come 
when  the  art  of  photography  will  be  so  well  under- 
stood that  these  impressions  may  be  reproduced. 

It  is  well  for  teachers  to  recognize  the  indisput- 
able fact  that  each  sense  has  its  own  special  mem- 
ory, indeed,  from  the  above  statement  of  the  phil- 
osophy of  memory  there  is  no  special  ganglion  for 
registering  all  impressions,  but  each  of  the  five 
senses  must  have  its  own  particular  registering 
ganglion.  One's  sight  memory  may  be  good  and 
11 


his  sound  memory  poor  and  vice  versa.  You  all 
know  how  retentive  is  the  blind  man's  memory  of 
distances,  locality  and  of  touch.  This  is  the  result 
of  discipline.  Other  branches  of  memory 
can  undoubtedly  be  cultivated  by  proper  discipline. 
The  fact  remains  that  because  the  memory  of  one 
sense  is  retentive  it  is  no  sign  that  one's  memory 
as  a  whole  is  retentive.  Eeading  is  an  exercise  in- 
volving sight  memory.  Spelling  may  be  an  exer- 
cise of  either  sight  memory,  or  sound  memory,  ac- 
cording to  the  manner  of  its  study  or  it  may  be 
an  exercise  of  both.  The  more  avenues  or  senses 
through  which  you  can  have  a  pupil  receive  im- 
pressions of  a  given  thing  the  deeper,  the  more 
perfect  and  the  more  reliable  will  be  the  resultant 
impression.  Thus  your  knowledge  of  an  orange 
would  be  very  imperfect  if  you  had  only  seen  one, 
but  had  neither  touched  nor  tasted  it. 

It  must  be  very  clear  to  even  the  casual  observer 
of  psychological  phenomena  that  there  is  an  inti- 
mate relation  between  thought  and  action.  It 
seems  to  be  a  law  of  our  natures  to  give  an  ex- 
pression of  each  and  every  idea  by  means  of  its 
appropriate  action.  Let  the  idea  of  going  some- 
where wholly  engross  the  mind  and  immediately 
there  is  an  almost  irresistible  impulse  to  put  that 
12 


idea  into  action  by  going.  This  impulse  will  be 
strong  to  the  extent  that  the  idea  engrosses  the 
mind  in  proportion  to  its  intensity.  It  is  well  that 
this  relation  exists  for  if  all  actions  were  the  result 
of  will  power  it  would  require  greater  effort,  would 
cause  greater  fatigue,  and  we  would  gain  no  facility 
with  practice. 

Subconscious  efforts  or  what  we  sometimes  call 
automatic  movements  are  undoubtedly  the  most 
accurate  and  less  fatiguing.  It  should  be  noticed 
further  that  this  relation  is  not  wholly  intuition 
but  may  be  made  by  cultivation  to  extend  itself 
to  what  may  be  termed  artificial  or  conventional 
forms  of  expression.  Thus  in  shorthand  a  certain 
sign  or  outline  is  conventionally  designated  as  the 
symbol  of  a  word  or  phrase.  Naturally,,  there  is 
no  inherent  impulse  to  write  that  character  when 
thinking  of  the  word,  but  by  repeating  the  action 
of  writing  the  character  when  thinking  of  the 
word  an  impulse  is  finally  created  that  links  the 
action  of  writing  with  the  thought  of  the  word,  so 
that  one  follows  the  other  quickly,  accurately,  and 
finally  automatically.  It  should  only  require  men- 
tion of  the  two  terms,  speed  and  accuracy,  to  at- 
tract the  attention  of  commercial  teachers.  Any- 
thing that  conduces  to  these  should  have  their  at- 
13 


tention.  It  is  right  here  that  I  helieve  we  get  at 
the  very  root  of  this  question.  A  study  of  the  laws 
governing  the  relation  of  thought  and  action  will 
give  us  the  correct  conception  of  the  difficulties  en- 
countered hy  the  pupil  and  this  in  turn  will  sug- 
gest to  us  proper  methods  for  overcoming  them. 
Our  work  is  almost  wholly  mauual  training  in  its 
character.  It  involves  both  knowing  and  doing. 
In  shorthand,  typewriting  and  writing  the  manual 
idea  is  especially  prominent.  A  moment's  thought 
should  now  convince  any  one  that  the  correct  form 
or  stroke,  as  the  case  may  be,  is  the  first  consider- 
ation. There  should  be  no  false  movements,  for 
you  are  cultivating  a  habit  of  movement  and  the 
straightest  route  to  the  destination  lies  in  the  repe- 
tition of  the  correct  movement.  False  movements 
or  forms  are  not  alone  a  waste  of  time  and  energy, 
but  they  are  worse — each  one  leaves  its  imprint 
in  the  nervous  tissue  and  itself  becomes  the  basis 
of  a  habit  that  will  tend  to  confusion.  To  secure 
speed  there  must  be  no  wavering  as  between  two 
acts,  for  then  selection  must  be  made  and  we  take 
the  act  out  of  the  realm  of  subconsciousness  and 
place  it  under  the  control  of  the  will.  This  is 
death  to  speed.  Probably  no  part  of  the  rnind  re- 
quires more  time  for  action  than  judgment.  The 
14 


very  term  itself  implies  deliberation.  Could  the 
accomplished  pianist  maintain  time  if  she  must 
needs  think  in  each  case  of  the  key  she  is  to  strike  ? 
This  principle  is  all  there  is  to  touch  typewriting. 
The  sight  method  was  largely  a  question  of  con- 
scious selection  of  keys;  the  touch  method  throws 
it  out  of  the  realm  of  the  conscious  into  that  of  the 
unconscious.  There  is  no  hesitation  to  give  judg- 
ment time  to  act,  but  with  an  assurance  born  of 
familiarity  the  finger  moves  with  accuracy  to  the 
proper  key  the  moment  the  thought  of  the  letter 
enters  the  mind.  Bear  in  mind  there  must  be  no 
rival  thoughts  in  the  mind,  each  struggling  for 
attention  or  both  speed  and  accuracy  of  action  are 
lost. 

While  speaking  of  touch  typewriting,  it  might 
be  well  to  state  another  reason  not  psychological 
why  it  is  speedier.  By  the  old  sight  method  it  was 
necessary  to  draw  the  hand  out  of  the  line  of  vision 
that  the  eye  might  see  where  the  hand  should 
strike  next.  This  necessitated  a  long  stroke  which 
took  time  and  effort.  By  the  touch  method  this 
is  unnecessary  and  the  hands  may  hover  closely 
over  the  board.  This  position  permits  of  the 
shortest  possible  stroke,  hence  a  saving  of  both 
time  and  effort. 

15 


There  are  perhaps  no  subjects  taught  in  schools 
that  contain  more  matter  that  is  merely  conven- 
tional than  is  to  be  found  in  our  particular  courses. 
It  is  obvious  that  conventional  matter  must  be 
communicated  by  the  teacher  to  the  pupil  but 
aside  from  this  the  less  telling  the  teacher  does 
the  better.  Direct  your  pupils  to  original  sources 
of  information  that  they  themselves  may  discover 
the  facts  that  will  lead  them  to  form  their  own 
conclusions.  In  practical  value  one  set  of  facts 
discovered  by  the  pupil  himself  and  a  correct  the- 
ory deducted  from  them  is  worth  a  hundred  sets  of 
facts  communicated  to  the  pupil  by  the  teacher. 

Knowledge  is  of  two  kinds,  that  which  we  know 
through  our  own  experience  and  what  we  know 
through  the  experience  of  others.  That  which 
is  a  part  of  our  own  experience  has  made  an  im- 
print on  our  minds  and  is  therefore  a  part  of  us. 
What  is  conveyed  to  us  by  another  lacks  the  vivid- 
ness, the  clearness,  and  the  definiteness  of  know- 
ledge gained  at  first  hand.  It  is  only  our  own 
when  we  have  ourselves  gone  over  the  processes 
of  reasoning  that  satisfies  the  mind  of  its  correct- 
ness and  validity.  That  teaching  is  best  and  most 
in  accord  with  our  theory  which  relies  less  on 
memory  and  more  on  reason  and  on  true  under- 
16 


standing.  Let  me  illustrate  this  and  you  will 
pardon  me  if  I  take  an  illustration  from  my  own 
experience.  Aside  from  the  rules  governing  the 
solution  of  problems  growing  out  of  the  relations 
of  the  sides  of  a  right  angle  triangle  and  the  value 
of  pi,  I  do  not  believe  that  I  know  a  single  rule 
of  mensuration,  yet  I  can  solve  its  problems  readily 
and  accurately.  Suppose  the  problem  be:  Given 
the  diameter  of  a  circle  to  find  its  circumference. 
Draw  a  circle  and  around  it  draw  a  square,  making 
its  sides  tangent  to  the  circle.  It  is  evident  that  a 
side  of  the  square  is  the  diameter  of  the  circle. 
The  perimeter  of  the  square  is  four  times  the  di- 
ameter. The  perimeter  of  the  circle  is  slightly  less. 
This  suggests  the  fact  that  the  circumference  of 
the  circle  is  pi  times  the  diameter.  In  like  manner 
all  similar  problems  can  be  solved  by  the  aid  of 
reason  rather  than  by  memory.  The  ability  to  do 
this  would  seem  to  be  the  more  desirable  if  for  no 
other  reason  than  on  account  of  the  greater  relia- 
bility of  the  faculties  involved  over  that  of  mem- 
ory. 

Take  the  law  of  falling  bodies.    Kemember  but 

the  simple  fact  that  a  body  will  fall  16  feet  the 

first  second,  by  a  chain  of  reasoning  let  us  work 

out  the  law.     Its  velocity  at  the  beginning  was  0. 

17 


It  fell  16  feet,  that  must  have  been  its  average  rate 
for  the  second,  consequently  its  velocity  must  have 
been  32  at  the  end  of  the  first  second  or  the  be- 
ginning of  the  second  second.  If  it  gained  no 
speed  in  the  second  second  it  would  fall  32  feet, 
but  gravity  acts  the  same  as  in  the  first  second  and 
pulls  it  16  feet  more  or  48  feet  in  the  second  second. 
It  started  at  the  rate  of  32  feet  and  fell  48  feet, 
it  must  have  closed  the  second  at  the  rate  of  64 
feet. 

The  point  I  wish  to  make  and  the  advice  I  wish 
to  give  is,  throw  as  much  as  possible  onto  the  un- 
derstanding of  the  pupil  and  less  on  to  the  memory. 
In  doing  this  I  do  not  wish  to  be  understood  as 
disparaging  the  value  of  memory.  On  the  contrary, 
I  feel  that  its  proper  cultivation  does  not  receive 
the  attention  it  should.  I  find  office  help  woefully 
deficient  in  it,  but  it  should  be  relieved  from  the 
burden  of  those  things  that  do  not  belong  to  it 
and  thereby  give  place  to  those  things  that  do 
belong  to  it. 

Bear  constantly  in  mind  that  the  particular 
thing  required  of  a  pupil  in  school  is  not  of  itself 
an  end,  but  a  means.  That  the  ultimate  end  of  all 
instruction  is  to  teach  the  pupil  to  think  and  to  do. 

Knowledge  is  not  power.  The  ability  to  think 
18 


and  to  do  is  power.  The  power  to  think  and  the 
power  to  do  are  the  two  things  that  are  called  into 
use  with  the  greatest  frequency.  They  are  the  only 
powers  that  can  meet  unusual  conditions  or  the 
emergency  of  the  moment.  Facts  are  too  numerous 
for  any  mind  to  form  into  an  organized  whole  or  to 
keep  tabbed  ready  for  instant  use  each  in  its  proper 
place.  The  possession  of  the  power  to  think  dis- 
penses with  the  necessity  for  the  retention  of  so 
many  facts.  Knowledge  may  vanish.,  but  the  power 
to  think  will  remain  as  long  as  the  mind  itself  re- 
mains. The  gist,  the  aim,  the  rule  of  all  our  in- 
struction should  be  to  teach  our  pupils  to  think  and 
to  do.  Square  all  your  plans  of  recitation  and  of 
study  by  the  rule  of  thought,  in  teaching  the  sci- 
ence of  a  subject  and  by  the  rule  of  action  in  teach- 
ing an  art,  and  in  your  teaching  you  will  not  go 
far  wrong.  Teach  your  pupils  how  to  think,  show 
them  the  sources  of  information  and  teach  them 
how  to  use  those  things  with  which  they  will  have 
to  do  and  you  have  done  more  for  them  than  you 
could  possibly  have  done  by  cramming  their  minds 
with  a  thousand  facts  useful  though  they  may  be. 
In  no  vocation  is  it  of  more  importance  that  the 
follower  be  able  to  think  and  to  do  than  in  busi- 
ness. 

19 


It  so  happens  that  several  of  the  subjects  consti- 
tuting our  courses  are  more  largely  Art  than  Sci- 
ence, thus  making  double  c^use  for  action.  When 
Philip  of  Macedon  presented  his  son  to  Aristotle 
for  a  pupil,  he  said,  "See  that  you  make  yourself 
useless  to  my  son."  Early  as  this  was  in  the  study 
of  education  it  shows  that  Philip  at  least  had  the 
true  conception  of  the  function  of  a  teacher. 

In  two  of  the  subjects  we  teach:  Shorthand  and 
Bookkeeping,  we  have  first  the  science,  next  the 
art  and  finally  the  manual  dexterity.  The  dis- 
tinction between  the  art  and  the  manual  dexterity 
may  to  your  mind  seem  far  fetched.  No  such  dis- 
tinction may  exist  as  a  matter  of  kind,  but  as  a  mat- 
ter of  degree  it  does  exist.  In  the  study  of  the 
science  we  must  first  have  information,  facts,  know- 
ledge, from  which  we  can  induce  proper  rules  or 
laws.  Thus  knowledge  is  at  the  foundation  of  the 
study  of  all  science.  It  cannot  be  dispensed  with, 
but  yet  it  is  not  the  important  thing  in  science  any 
more  than  a  stone  in  the  foundation  is  the  im- 
portant element  because  it  supports  the  super- 
structure. The  superstructure  is  the  important 
part  of  the  house  because  it  is  the  end  for  which 
the  foundation  exists.  It  is  in  the  study  of  the 
science  that  you  can  best  teach  your  pupils  to 
20 


think  and  here  it  is  that  they  should  be  gradually 
thrown  upon  their  own  resources  at  as  early  a  date 
as  possible.  The  mental  processes  that  are  called 
into  most  frequent  use  in  the  business  world  are 
observing,  reasoning,  remembering  and  judging. 
The  faculties  governing  these  can  all  be  materially 
strengthened  by  proper  methods  of  study  while 
pursuing  our  courses.  In  bookkeeping  and  short- 
hand it  is  true  these  are  not  the  important  ends  to 
be  attained,  because  they  are  not  the  ultimate  ends 
of  study,  but  they  are  incidental  ends  of  no  mean 
value. 

In  the  study  of  bookkeeping  and  shorthand  the 
ultimate  object  is  the  manual  dexterity.  It  is  the 
ability  to  do  intelligently.  ISTot  only  the  ability 
to  do  but  the  ability  to  do  quickly  and  accurately. 
As  we  have  already  observed,  there  is  an  intimate 
relation  between  thought  and  action.  Clear  think- 
ing must  always  precede  intelligent  accurate  doing. 
Have  you  not  yourself  often  so  clearly  perceived 
a  process  that  though  you  had  never  attempted  the 
act  you  felt  confident  you  could  perform  it  accu- 
rately? The  clearer  you  are  as  to  how  a  thing 
should  be  done  the  more  apt  you  are  to  do  it  accu- 
rately. The  cultivation  of  the  thinking  power 
strengthens  the  doing  power  and  conversely  the 
21 


strengthening  of  the  doing  power  strengthens  the 
thinking  power. 

Through  all  manual  training  we  do  then  re- 
ceive a  certain  mental  discipline  that  is  valuable. 
One  of  the  most  valuable  disciplines  afforded  in 
our  courses  is  from  the  continuity  that  is  absolutely 
necessary  first  in  acquiring  a  knowledge  of  the 
science  of  the  subjects  and  later  in  acquiring  the 
necessary  manual  dexterity.  This  is  a  discipline 
that  seems  to  me  is  sadly  wanting  in  the  modern 
common  and  high  school  courses.  We  confine  the 
pupil  to  the  study  of  but  few  subjects  per  day,  and 
to  these  he  must  apply  himself  with  great  earnest- 
ness. He  gets  from  our  courses  for  the  first  time 
that  power  of  tenactity  of  purpose  that  will  be  in- 
valuable to  him  throughout  life,  no  matter  what 
his  vocation  may  be. 

Hume  says  every  mental  impression  has  its  idea. 
Similar  ideas  tend  to  excite  one  another.  Impres- 
sion begets  expression.  Expression  tends  to  clear- 
ness and  definiteness.  So  one  assists  and  either 
creates  or  intensifies  the  other.  In  this  law  we  can 
readily  see  that  man  was  endowed  by  Providence 
with  the  power  of  speech  not  alone  for  his  own 
selfish  use  and  gratification  but  for  that  of  his 
fellow  man  as  well.  The  power  of  expression  is 


important  then  for  its  retroactive  effect.  A  pupil 
may  have  the  correct  conception  of  a  rule  or  prin- 
ciple but  he  makes  sharper  and  clearer  its  bound- 
ary lines  when  he  gives  outward  expression  to  his 
idea.  Other  things  being  equal  the  pupil  that  ex- 
presses himself  most  clearly  on  a  given  subject  has 
the  most  complete  and  accurate  ideas  concerning  it. 
It  has  been  often  and  well  said  that  all  men  are 
eloquent  on  those  subjects  with  which  they  are 
perfectly  familiar.  Eecitations  should  as  far  as 
possible  be  so  conducted  that  the  pupil  will  be 
obliged  to  express  his  ideas  in  complete  and  con- 
nected sentences  rather  than  to  answer  questions  in 
monosyllables.  In  his  search  for  words  he  will 
endeavor  to  select  those  that  most  aptly  and  clearly 
represent  his  ideas  and  in  this  search  a  new  phase 
or  differentiation  of  the  subject  will  often  occur  to 
him.  Herein  also  lies  one  of  the  values  of  learning 
correct  definitions.  They  both  tend  to  accuracy 
of  statement  as  well  as  of  thought.  You  may 
often  hear  a  pupil  say  he  knows  a  certain  thing 
but  he  cannot  tell  it.  If  he  knows  anything  of  it 
he  knows  it  imperfectly.  His  ideas  of  it  are  far 
from  clear.  If  the  subject  be  a  new  one  to  him 
he  may  not  be  familiar  with  its  technical  nomen- 
clature but  he  has  a  language  of  his  own  with 
23 


which   to    express   whatever    clear   ideas   he   has. 

The  pupil  who  places  a  demonstration  on  the 
board  gets  much  discipline  from  his  explanation 
of  it.  In  his  attempts  to  make  it  clear  to  his  fel- 
low pupils  he  makes  it  clearer  to  himself.  For  this 
same  reason  you  probably  learned  more  the  first 
year  you  taught  than  you  learned  in  any  of  your 
student  years. 

Looseness  and  inaccuracy  in  the  use  of  words 
leads  to  indefiniteness  and  lack  of  clearness  in 
thought.  As  we  are  more  precise  and  discriminat- 
ing in  the  use  of  written  language  than  in  oral 
discourse,,  I  am  coming  more  and  more  to  value 
composition  in  some  form  as  a  disciplinary  agent. 
In  letter  writing  we  are  overlooking  an  oppor- 
tunity that  lies  close  to  hand  and  that  should 
appeal  to  us  not  only  for  its  own  intrinsic  worth 
but  for  its  incidental  value  in  getting  language 
power  and  ultimately  thought  power. 

"We  teach  individually"  sounds  well  in  a  col- 
lege catalogue  or  when  talking  to  the  layman,  but 
there  is  no  greater  nor  more  pernicious  heresy 
than  it. 

The  acquisition  of  knowledge  gained  in  the 
natural  manner  is  pleasing  because  it  is  in  exact 
accordance  with  the  laws  of  nature  which  do  not 
24 


conflict  but  are  in  perfect  harmony.  If  you  see 
therefore  that  your  pupils  find  a  study  distasteful 
lay  the  fault  rather  to  the  time  or  method  of  pre- 
sentation than  to  the  pupil.  Your  investigation 
to  discover  the  fault  should  be  subjective  rather 
than  objective. 

You  know  how  perfectly  natural  and  pleasing 
it  is  to  the  child  to  exercise  its  muscles.  It  is 
just  as  natural  and  invigorating  for  it  to  exercise 
its  mental  faculties.  The  young  child's  life  is 
made  up  of  first  doing  and  later  of  observing, 
thinking  and  doing  in  all  of  which  he  takes  intense 
delight  and  through  which  he  develops  all  his 
powers  both  mental  and  physical. 

The  comparison  may  be  carried  still  further.  As 
a  proper  exercise  of  the  physical  being  invigorates 
and  stimulates  the  members  for  further  activity 
so  a  proper  exercise  of  the  mental  powers  creates 
a  desire  for  further  exercise. 

A  listless,  unintelligent  pupil  is  the  best  indi- 
cation of  improper  methods  of  presentation.  The 
attention  and  interest  manifested  by  the  class  is  a 
reliable  and  accurate  barometer  of  the  propriety 
of  the  methods  used. 

In  the  development  of  a  subject  it  is  a  safe  rule 
never  to  present  to  the  pupil  but  one  new  thing 
25 


at  a  time.  Text  books  are  often  venial  offenders 
in  this  regard,  and  hurl  new  principles  at  the  pupil 
in  groups.  This  is  unpsychological  and  therefore 
unpedagogical.  The  result  is  confusion  of 
thought  which  it  will  take  time  and  effort  to  over- 
come. Bring  each  point  out  clearly  and  distinctly 
and  for  the  time  being  make  it  the  matter  of 
prime  importance. 

For  this  reason  I  have  always  favored  the  use  of 
the  outline.  It  makes  the  subject  graphic,  con- 
cretes it,  enables  the  eye  to  join  with  the  other 
senses  in  conveying  the  right  sort  of  picture  to  the 
brain.  An  outline  well  constructed  and  properly 
displayed  by  the  teacher  for  the  use  of  the  pupil  is 
good,  often  the  best  that  can  be  done  under  the 
circumstances,  but  when  possible  it  is  better  to 
have  the  pupil  construct  his  own  outlines  and  sub- 
mit them  for  the  inspection  of  the  teacher.  Such 
work  is  truly  educational.  It  teaches  the  pupil  to  be 
constructive-creative,  to  co-ordinate  and  co-relate 
the  different  important  facts  and  principles  giving 
to  each  the  value  belonging  to  it.  The  mere  time 
it  will  take  to  construct  and  arrange  the  outline 
is  well  spent,  for  during  all  that  time  the  mind  is 
held  continually  to  the  one  thing.  There  is  no 
opportunity  here  for  the  elimination  of  intermedi- 
26 


ate  syllogisms  and  the  reaching  of  simply  general 
conclusions  without  the  result  being  shown  in  the 
outline.  An  outline  teaches  order,  symmetry,  pro- 
portion, and  cultivates  the  judgment  and  reasoning 
faculties.  It  makes  the  subject  graphic  and  en- 
ables the  pupil  to  intensify  the  impression  by  re- 
ceiving a  new  one  through  the  eye. 

Unfortunately  but  few  of  the  subjects  we  teach 
lend  themselves  well  to  the  best  use  of  the  outline 
and  even  in  those  subjects  we  are  apt  to  be  so 
driven  for  time -in  which  to  throw  in  the  necessary 
information,  that  we  cannot  tarry  to  give  that  in- 
formation in  the  manner  calculated  to  give  the 
pupil  at  the  same  time  the  best  mental  discipline. 

A  desire  to  know,  to  do  and  to  feel  things  is  an 
inherent  quality  of  every  healthy  mind.  It  is  at  the 
basis  of  the  development  of  the  mind.  If  the 
desire  were  not  to  a  greater  or  less  degree  inherent 
the  child  of  seven  would  know  but  little  more 
than  the  babe  of  one.  Most  of  the  knowledge 
gained  in  this  period  is  gained  because  it  was 
sought,  not  because  it  was  thrust  upon  it.  To 
know  the  why  and  the  wherefore  is  almost  as 
elemental. 

You  better  sustain  the  interest  when  your  pupils 
are  made  to  understand  the  reasons  for  requiring 
27 


certain  things  of  them.  They  should  always  know 
not  only  what  they  are  doing  but  why.  Take  your 
pupils  into  your  confidence  not  for  the  sake  of  the 
confidence  but  that  their  work  may  be  more  intelli- 
gently done  and  therefore  more  willingly  done. 

Now  just  one  more  point  of  a  general  nature  and 
I  am  done.  It  has  often  been  said  that  we  are  all 
but  boys  and  girls  grown  tall,  that  we  all  love  an 
anecdote.  This  may  be  because  we  all  possess  that 
human  interest  and  sympathy  which  binds  us  to- 
gether, or  it  may  be  because  we  are  all  impressed 
with  that  which  is  startling  and  ludicrous,  but 
whatever  it  is  we  possess  it  in  common  and  the 
relating  of  an  anecdote  will  never  fail  to  attract 
the  attention  of  the  class. 

Good  teaching  depends  upon  attention  and  at- 
tention depends  upon  interest.  Interest  can  al- 
ways be  secured  by  an  anecdote.  Do  we  as  teach- 
ers make  as  much  use  of  the  anecdote  as  we  could? 
In  the  study  of  Commercial  Law  is  a  fine  oppor- 
tunity for  the  teacher  in  this  regard.  By  connect- 
ing a  truth  or  a  principle  with  anything  that  is 
startling  or  that  claims  the  attention  you  make 
a  deep  impression  and  by  the  association  you  en- 
able him  easily  to  recall  it.  The  securing  of  inter- 
est depends  on  the  teacher's  ability  to  connect  the 


subject  he  is  teaching  with  something  interesting 
already  in  the  mind  of  the  pupil.     Therefore  to  \ 
arouse  interest  is  to  know  what  is  already  in  the  ] 
pupil's  mind  that  is  interesting  to  him  and  so 
make  the  new  work  branch  out  from  this  as  a 
center. 

Herein  lies  the  true  inwardness  of  securing  at- 
tention. As  a  true  teacher  you  have  no  right  to 
demand  interest,  indeed,  it  cannot  be  commanded 
for  long  and  even  then  the  benefits  derived  from 
it  are  of  doubtful  value.  Bring  the  subject  down 
to  a  level  where  the  pupil  can  understand  and  ap- 
preciate it,  but  where  it  will  keep  him  on  tip  toe 
to  fully  reach  it.  Those  of  you  who  have  studied 
human  nature  know  that  if  the  object  of  a  particu- 
lar study  is  not  apparent  to  the  pupil  it  has  no 
interest  for  him.  This  is  the  reason  for  so  gen- 
eral a  lack  of  interest  in  language  work  and  at  the 
same  time  an  explanation  for  the  verv  general  in- 
terest that  exists  among  boys  in  the  study  of  book- 
keeping. You  do  not  have  to  lie  awake  nights  to 
devise  plans  for  presenting  bookkeeping  that  will 
prove  interesting.  Its  object  is  already  clear.  It 
appeals  to  the  sense  of  profit  which  is  more  or  less 
lively  in  all  pupils.  It  is  easy  for  every  boy  to 
connect  it  with  his  past  experiences.  A  few  even- 
29 


ings  ago  I  was  urging  my  boy  of  ten  to  give  more 
attention  to  his  language  lessons.  He  looked  at 
me  with  an  air  of  disgust  and  asked,  "What  is  the 
use  of  language  lessons,  you  never  hear  anything 
of  them  in  business."  To  him  it  was  an  isolated 
subject,  neither  connected  with  his  past  experi- 
ences nor  in  his  mind  with  anything  in  the  future 
that  could  have  any  interest  for  him.  Under  such 
circumstances  labor  spent  on  its  study  was  spent 
without  hope  of  reward.  This  is  abhorrent  to  the 
average  mind.  Take  your  pupils  into  your  confi- 
dence, make  them  to  see  the  object  you  wish  to  at- 
tain and  if  not  apparent,  the  value  to  them  of  at- 
taining that  object,  and  you  will  have  more  willing 
pupils  because  more  interested  pupils.  Here,  too, 
is  a  point  for  the  teacher  of  commercial  law.  The 
pupils  you  have  are  always  without  the  business 
experience.  They  know  in  a  general  way  that  a 
knowledge  of  law  will  be  valuable  to  them,  but  as 
to  the  value  of  an  individual  proposition  of  law 
they  are  not  so  clear.  The  application  therefore 
of  each  principle  must  be  made  clear.  You  state 
to  a  boy  a  bare  principle  or  rule  of  law.  If  out  of 
whatever  experience  he  may  have,  he  cannot  clothe 
that  principle  in  the  necessary  setting  of  facts  to 
make  it  a  living,  practical  case,  it  will  mean  nothing 
30 


to  him  but  a  jumble  of  words.  You  have  not  con- 
nected it  with  his  past  experiences,  and  it  can  have 
.  no  interest  for  him.  Studying  law  in  that  manner 
becomes  merely  a  memory  exercise  much  as  history 
was  in  most  cases  when  you  yourselves  were  in 
school. 

So  far  as  interest  goes,  the  ideal  time  for  the 
study  of  any  subject  is  when  the  pupil  from  his 
own  experiences  has  seen  the  necessity  for  it.  As 
in  most  cases  that  time  comes  too  late  in  life  it 
remains  for  the  teacher  to  supply  the  connecting 
links  that  will  make  the  subject  interesting. 

What  now  are  a  few  deductions  we  can  make 
from  the  above  observations. 

First.  That  spelling  should  be  an  exercise  of 
both  eye  and  ear  and  if  to  that  you  can  make  use 
of  the  muscular  sense  it  is  all  the  better.  That  in 
presenting  the  words  for  study  they  should  not 
be  mutilated  but  should  be  presented  just  as  they 
would  appear  in  the  printed  page. 

Second.  That  in  bookkeeping  it  is  not  sufficient 
that  a  pupil  knows  how  but  he  must  know  how  to 
do  accurately  and  quickly.  The  pupil  should  be 
disciplined  in  school  in  the  handling  of  quantity 
as  well  as  quality.  That  in  commercial  law  the 
subject  should  be  presented  inductively  as  nearly 
31 


as  possible,  for  in  business  law  is  always  presented 
in  that  way  and  it  would  seem  to  be  a  safe  general 
rule  to  present  a  subject  in  school  exactly  as  it  will 
be  presented  in  life. 

That  in  English,  while  it  is  generally  conceded 
that  a  knowledge  of  technical  grammar  does  not 
necessarily  lead  to  a  correct  use  of  language,  yet 
such  a  knowledge  seems  to  be  a  necessary  basis. 
That  true  interest  can  only  be  aroused  in  the  pupil 
by  showing  him  through  written  exercises  where 
and  how  a  knowledge  of  language  will  be  useful  to 
him  and  second,  that  this  same  written  work  is 
the  best  instrument  that  is  available  for  giving  him 
the  necessarv  skill. 


32 

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W.  P.  Dunn  Company 
Chicago 


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